Ed, Subject 65
by Recursive Sweatpants
Summary: Peach Creek was always an unstable little town financially, so it was no big surprise when everyone had to move away. Everyone except Ed.


This is just a little oneshot that I wrote hastily on a sad day, but I guess it's worth posting. Enjoy.

* * *

**Observations Summary #1**  
**Date: June 1st.**  
**Subject: #65**  
**Beginning study of subject. Appears to have hallucinations and conscious phantasms near constantly. Seems to be aware of basic surroundings, yet unaware or uncaring of cleanliness or current state of the area. Subject occasionally behaves as if conversing with other people, possibly undergoing hallucinations. Further study is needed to form any hypotheses.**

_Personal Log_  
_Date: June 1st._  
_Subject: Ed_  
_Ed. Poor kid. He was always known as the neighborhood idiot when we were all growing up. Nobody really liked him, despite his well-meaning actions and good-natured attitude. We all had our own problems, and nobody wanted a dim-whitted boy who didn't know how to bathe interfering with them._  
_Of course, he didn't care what we thought about him; I think he considered all of us friends. Especially that Eddy kid, and myself, for he would always bother us the most. I think it was because we all shared the name Edward, but I didn't really like to associate with either of them when I was a child.  
_

**Observations Summary #2**  
**Date: July 1st.**  
**Subject: #65**  
**I have confirmed that the subject is continuously delusional, completely unaware of the state of the environment around him. Does not react to the presence of other people, nor any interactions made verbally or physically. Appears to sustain self with water from the nearby stream and peaches from various peach trees around the location.**  
**Will occasionally talk, apparently to the figments of his phantasms, often repeating certain words such as "Buttered toast," "Double-D," "Gravy," "Eddy," and "Jawbreakers."**

_Personal Log_  
_Date: July 1st._  
_Subject: Ed_  
_Ed was always a strange kid, but nobody really thought about what went on through the boy's mind until everyone moved away. Peach Creek was never a stable neighborhood financially, so it was no big surprise when everyone had to move out because there would no longer be water or electrical services going to our homes._  
_Ed, however, did not take the news very well._  
_Well, to be more accurate, I don't think he took it at all, actually. It did not seem to phase him when we told him that we were all moving away. He simply stared blankly for a minute, and then ran off laughing his usual laugh. Nobody seemed to know his parents, and he was the only one who didn't have a moving van in their parking lot before everyone left. As I drove off, I saw him on the old playground, jumping up and down on the see-saw by himself._  
_I thought I would never see him again._

**Observations Summary #3**  
**Date: December 24**  
**Subject: #65**  
**Subject appears to be aware of the approaching holiday. He makes crude Christmas decorations out of various materials scattered around the area and puts them in random places. I have hypothesized that he is completely unaware of his surroundings at all times save for the locations of the river and sources of food. I cannot understand how he realizes the holiday approaching; the area has no up-to-date calenders or other methods of keeping time. Subject still does not react to the presence of anyone else in the area.**

_Personal Log_  
_Date: December 24_  
_Subject: Ed_  
_It has been 25 years since everyone moved out of Peach Creek. I have grown up to be a scientist, unsurprisingly to my old acquaintances whom I've crossed paths with here and there. Out of all the studies I've conducted since the start of my career, none of them have ever been as strange or confounding as this one. I was passing through Peach Creek, or what was left of it, one day on my way to a new university to study at when I saw him. Ed._  
_I didn't recognize him at first; the putrid green jacket that he always wore was covered in dirt and mold and who knows what else, and it looked like the man would burst out of it at any second. Ed himself was filthy beyond comprehension; he looked like he hadn't cut his hair for years, and had a beard that he dragged along the ground as he ran around. Every inch of his body was covered in dirt and grime, but the man didn't seem to care. Had he been here ever since everyone left? I thought as I nervously went up to him to ask what in Sam Hill he was doing here._  
_He didn't notice me._

**Observations Summary #4**  
**Date: June 1, nine years since last log.**  
**Subject: #65**  
**No major progress had been made on subject since last recorded log. Continues to talk to imaginary people, though he has only said ten consistent names: "Eddy," "Double-D," "Johnny," "Rolf," "Sarah," "Kevin," "Nazz," "Jimmy," "Plank," and "Kankers." Such speech occurs intermittently; a "conversation" between subject and one or more of his phantasms can have pauses for hours before subject says or reacts to something. I hypothesize that he still thinks that he is a child, due to his speech patterns and actions. He is currently undergoing abnormal behavior, such as leaving the neighborhood and apparently thinks that something or someone is chasing him.**

_Personal Log_  
_Date: June 1, nine years since last log._  
_Subject: Ed_

_I can't imagine what Ed must be going through mentally right now. His complete lack of awareness of anything besides finding food and water within the boundaries of the abandoned neighborhood makes me wonder how the man is still alive. Years must seem like days to him; he only appears to have hallucinations every couple of hours or so, the time in between spent finding food or sleeping, and when they come they are only around for a short time.__  
He keeps mentioning the names of the children that were once in the neighborhood when we were all growing up. He uses the name "Double-D," which I guess is referring to me, since my name contains two D's in it. From the quotes that I've recorded, he seems to consider me-or his vision of me, anyway-along with Eddy his best friends. It saddens me somewhat, since I never really associated with the boy growing up._  
_Nobody did really, except for Sarah. She was quite hot-headed for an only child, but she would actually show sympathy for the boy. Next to Eddy and myself, Ed took a liking to Sarah, although she wasn't nice to him all the time. I wonder what he thinks of her in his skewed little world. He mentions her often, though it appears to be either in tremendous fear or brotherly affection. I've even heard him say "Baby Sister" a few times, which makes my heart sink a little._

_After all, she died of a heart attack three years ago. _

_Right now Ed seems to be going through some kind of ordeal. His hallucinations are becoming more frequent, and I have recorded him crying, a rarity for the man. He appears to think that "Double-D," or I, am leaving him and "Eddy" for some reason._

_It began a few months ago, when he moved outside of the neighborhood, another uncommon action of the man. He started out by running around the area, apparently being chased by something, before stopping to eat and sleep. Afterwards, he ran to the desert in the south, and began having conversation with "Eddy" and "Double-D." He said something about "Eddy's Brother," and headed to Lemon Brook, another town that was condemned to desertion from lack of funding. He spent some time in an old factory before running off yet again into a forest. Following the river, he came upon a swamp where he is currently residing. I am a bit worried, for he has coughed up blood from time to time since he left the neighborhood and he received a near fatal shock from a generator inside of the old factory__. I can only imagine what Ed must be seeing for him to undergo such a journey__._

_I want to help him, but efforts had been made long ago to cure him with no success, and using force on the man would cause him to become unexpectedly violent, possibly another survival instinct. Looking at his birth records, Ed's parents left him shortly before everyone moved away and are now deceased. He has no living relatives, and as far as the government is concerned, he does not exist. He isn't breaking the law in any way, and he isn't dangerous unless provoked so he cannot be moved to a mental home. Those who knew about his case (of which there are few) and I all agreed it would be best just to leave him be and study his actions passively, no matter how self-destructive they may be.__  
_

**Observations Summary #5**  
**Date: July 12, one year since last log.**  
**Subject: #65 Compilation**  
**After 10 years of study, I have formed an accepted theory. The subject suffered from a never-before-seen mental disease that appeared around the age of 12. The basic principle of the disease is that it did not allow him to acknowledge significant changes in his life. When changes occurred, from simple things such as seeing a new person to more drastic events such as someone moving away, his mind would undergo an extreme form of denial and would simulate images and senses in order for the person to believe nothing has gone amiss. This prevented him from consciously acknowledging changes in his environment, his subconscious instincts for survival being the only thing allowing him to find food and water while everything else-including all five of his senses-was trapped in a world of his memories. Comparing subject's behavior with his history before the disease, it is assumed that his childhood memories, which are fueling his hallucinations, have become somewhat distorted. No other cases of such phenomena have been reported, and further study is now impossible until such cases appear again. Thus concludes this experiment.**

_Personal Log_  
_Date: July 12, one year since last log._  
_Subject: Ed_  
_Continuing off from the last log, Ed appeared to have some sort of mental breakdown in the swamp. The man cried whenever he wasn't occupied with survival, apparently worried that one of his friends is leaving him. However, a few days later he suddenly perked up, apparently joyous as ever, and he finally left the area. He traveled along a road and made his way to the top of a cliff that towered directly over the old Mondo-A-Go-Go Amusement Park. He stayed there for a couple of months, sleeping for excess amounts of time and getting up only to eat. He would do this once every couple of years; I assume that's when he "sleeps" in his own world. When he "woke up," he made his way down into the park. Some kind of confrontation occurred there in his mind, something about this "Eddy's Brother" apparently. This lasted for a few days, and Ed didn't take any time to eat or sleep in that period for some reason. Early this morning, he collapsed, apparently having solved said confrontation. He lay there on the ground laughing not his usual laugh, but one much more happy and jovial, as if something amazing happened to him. Tears streamed down his dirty cheeks, his laughter morphing into intense coughing that, after a while stopped abruptly._  
_And then he died._

_That was the end of Ed. Poor kid._


End file.
